City of Hope Scientists Develop Plug-and-Play Platform to Retune CAR T Cells
City of Hope researchers have created a plug-and-play technology that adds engineered molecules to CAR T cells after treatment, offering a flexible way to redirect them against different cancers.
Researchers at City of Hope have developed a "plug-and-play" technology that attaches engineered molecules to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells after they have been administered, a preclinical study has found. The approach is designed to give scientists greater control over the cells and to redirect them against different types of cancer.
The platform works by using protein-adaptor plug-ins rather than building every desired function directly into the CAR T cell. According to Dr. Christine Brown, City of Hope's Heritage Provider Network Professor in Immunotherapy, this flexibility is the technology's main strength. She said that instead of hardwiring each function into a CAR T cell, researchers can add new capabilities as needed through these plug-ins.
That adaptability could help CAR T cells keep pace with tumors as they mutate, and may improve the cells' ability to overcome tumor heterogeneity and other barriers that have limited CAR T therapy in solid tumors.
The findings come from preclinical work, meaning the technology has not yet been tested in patients.